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HAGATNA, Guam (Pacific Daily News, Jan. 8) - The government of Guam is costing the GovGuam Employees Retirement Fund about $100 million per year, and at the current rate, the Fund will run out of money in about nine years, said outgoing board Chairman Gerald Perez.

Perez said the Retirement Fund has a "horrendous unfunded liability as a result of legislatively mandated programs that have nothing to do with vested benefits."

Lawmakers borrowed as much as $30 million from the Retirement Fund each year during the past several fiscal years to make supplemental payments to government retirees -- payments that are not part of their regular benefits, but which are a gift from local taxpayers.

Other factors that contributed to the $1 billion unfunded liability are programs that allow GovGuam employees to retire ahead of schedule because of military experience and education.

The board of trustees for the Retirement Fund officially resigned yesterday evening...

TARAWA, Kiribati (Radio Australia, Jan., 8) - In Kiribati, this week’s sitting of parliament had two very important items on the agenda.

It is the election of the speaker and the presidential nominees.

Leading into these elections, local commentators predicted the race for President would be between President Teburoro Tito and Dr Harry Tong, a member of the country's opposition.

But Dr Tong was a surprise omission from the list of presidential candidates.

Radio Australia says the complexities of the electoral process in Kiribati have produced many twists and turns throughout the long drawn out campaign, which began with the general election on November 29.

Dr Harry Tong a member of the opposition easily won his seat and the right to nominate for the presidential race.

But surprisingly, President Tito failed to attain the simple majority required under the constitution and was forced into a run-off election which he eventually won.

KOROR, Palau (Palau Horizon/PINA, Jan. 7) - Law enforcement officers of Palau's Division of Fish and Wildlife Protection want to carry firearms, citing the danger they face from poachers when performing their duties.

Kammen Chin, division chief, said he has sent letters of requests to Swenny Shiro, director of the Bureau of Public Safety, and Justice Minister Michael Rosenthal.

"We receive a lot of threats," Chin said. "We face a lot of dangerous people in our line of work, and they are armed with machetes, air guns, spear guns and spears."

The division has seven officers, including Chin. They are requesting approval to carry pistols and rifles.

Said Chin: "We often go out at night when it is really dark in the forest and in the waters, because that’s when hunters and poachers conduct their illegal trade. Sometimes we hear gunshots coming from .22 pistols and even shotguns. We have to equip the officers if we want to improve the protection of the...

PORT VILA, Vanuatu (RNI/PINA, Jan. 7) -Pentecost Island paramount chief, and former parliamentarian Vincent Boulekone is vowing to challenge the constitutionality of new legislation governing who can farm kava in Vanuatu.

The bill, which was passed by parliament at the end of last year, but is yet to be signed into law, bars all mixed race and naturalized citizens from farming kava.

They will be allowed to deal in kava, but will have to buy it from indigenous Ni-Vanuatu farmers, who will hold exclusive rights to farm the crop.

Boulekone said all mixed raced people and naturalized citizens living in the country are allowed the same rights under the constitution as the indigenous Ni-Vanuatu.

The government bill was introduced to end the domination of a handful of mixed race and naturalized citizens who have been successful kava farmers and exporters.

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (Radio Australia, Jan. 8) - Cyclone Zoe has focused world attention on the culture of the people of Tikopia - who belong to the Solomon Islands’ small Polynesian minority.

For generations the Tikopia have learned to live with the devastating impact of cyclones, and have managed to find refuge on different parts of the island to minimize loss of life.

But other practices, such as abortion and infanticide, are also believed to be an integral part of traditional Tikopia society, where survival hinged on the ability to control population growth.

Dr Judith Macdonald, a lecturer in anthropology at New Zealand's Waikato University says the island is on the typhoon belt, or the cyclone belt, so every year they will deal with heavy winds, sometimes they will deal with cyclones every five or ten years.

A cyclone the size of Zoe, however – with winds approaching 200 miles per hour - comes along only once in a hundred years, weather experts...

HAGATNA, Guam (Pacific Daily News, Jan. 8) - Newly elected or appointed directors on the Guam Visitors Bureau (GVB) board met yesterday, armed with goals to revive an industry that stumbled after two major storms struck the island last year.

At the meeting, the board:

Â· Established a transition period, not exceeding 30 days, for former Sen. Tony Lamorena to phase himself in as Guam Visitors Bureau general manager as General Manager James Nelson exits; and

Â· Chose David Tydingco chairman of the GVB board. The GVB chairmanship is a community service that doesn't come with a paycheck, so Tydingco said he also will keep his full-time job as president of the Guam Hotel and Restaurant Association.

Tydingco replaced ex-Chairman Tony Sgro who, in his parting speech yesterday, thanked visitors bureau staff and tourism supporters for their efforts and issued a warning to the visitors bureau membership.

***Enhancing the Partnership Between Korea and the United States in the 21st Century***

Jan. 6-8 at the East West Center.

Twenty specialists from South Korea and the United States will participate, including North Korea experts Victor D. Cha, chair of the D.S. Song-Korea Foundation at Georgetown University; Hong Koo Lee, chair of the Seoul Forum for International Affairs and a former South Korean prime minister and ambassador to the United States; Young Shik Yang, a professor at Korea University and former deputy minister of unification; and Jang Jip Choi and Sang Jin Han, the former and current chairs respectively of the Presidential Commission on Policy Planning. The conference also kicks off the centennial celebration of Korean immigration to the United States.

A full list of participants and the conference schedule is included at the bottom of this report.

KOROR, Palau (Palau Horizon/Marianas Variety, Jan. 9) - The Bureau of Marine Resources of the Ministry of Resources and Development has been training Palau local fishermen on modern methods and techniques.

Theo Isamu, bureau director, said they have conducted month-long training sessions for fishermen at least three or four times last year, the last of which were held from Nov. 4 to Dec. 4.

Isamu said this was part of the bureau’s efforts to develop inshore fisheries by transferring modern fishing techniques to Palauan fishermen for the purpose of enhancing subsistence and commercial fishing.

He said the training was successful, adding that each of the events were participated by around nine to 12 local fishermen, including sports fishermen.

The fishermen learned about fish quality preservation and surface long line fishery, among others. These techniques, Isamu said, will greatly enhance the local fishermen’s capability for commercial and subsistence...

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (PINA Jan. 8) - Aucklander Max McCamish marvels how a fishing boat he owned before it was abandoned in a storm off Samoa five years ago turned up in cyclone-hit Tikopia, Solomon Islands.

He was staggered to be confronted by a photograph in the New Zealand Herald of his 10-meter, twin-hulled aluminium vessel, the Streyka.

It was high and dry on Tikopia but looking relatively intact despite Cyclone Zoe, the New Zealand Herald said.

New Zealand photojournalist Geoff Mackley, who took the photo, said the boat was hurled about 200 meters inland by 10-meter waves driven by winds of up to 350km/h. It was found on sand above buried homes, he said.

It still carried its original green and white paintwork and the name of the Samoan boatyard, which built it for a fishing business Mr McCamish established with a friend in Apia, Lawrie Burich.

The boat overturned in a storm early in 1998, Mr McCamish told the New Zealand Herald.

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.